MOST visitors to Tijuana, Mexico, make a beeline for the Avenida Revolucion to raid souvenir shops, hunt for handicraft bargains or pose for photos with a zebra-painted burro or donkey.

However, a small but growing number of tourists crossing the border from San Diego, California, these days are not there for light-hearted fun.

RAMALLAH - PALESTINIAN president Mahmud Abbas will travel to Washington on December 19 for talks with US President George W. Bush and will fly to Moscow a few days later, his spokesman said on Friday.

Abbas and Bush will discuss the status of Middle East peace efforts since Israeli-Palestinian talks were relaunched at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November 2007, Nabil abu Rudeina said.

HARARE - ZIMBABWE'S information minister on Friday accused former colonial ruler Britain of starting the country's cholera epidemic in a bid to commit a 'genocide of our people'.

'Cholera is a calculated, racist attack on Zimbabwe by the unrepentant former colonial power, which has enlisted support from its American and Western allies so that they can invade the country,' Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told a press conference.